


rinse

by falterth



Series: Naruto Femslash Week 2018 [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: ANBU - Freeform, Bathing, F/F, Hinata hates unwashed soap suds, Ino really hates blood in her hair, Naruto Femslash Week 2018, Non-Explicit Nudity, Rated Teen for mentions of blood and death, gay wives being soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-27
Updated: 2018-08-27
Packaged: 2019-07-03 05:41:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15812565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/falterth/pseuds/falterth
Summary: “There’s . . . blood. In my hair. It’s drying,” Ino says by way of greeting.Hinata puts down her book. “Do you want me to help wash it out?”(If there’s one thing Ino hates even more than blood under her nails, it’s blood in her hair. Naruto Femslash Week 2018, “domestic life” prompt.)





	rinse

Ino exhales heavily through her nose, peeling off her sticky clothes. Hinata wrinkles her nose, but doesn’t comment on the smell. “Just throw those to me and start showering first. I’ll go put them in the laundry,” she instructs. Ino tosses her dirty ANBU uniform at her and she catches them effortlessly. It takes less than five minutes for her to throw the clothes in a bucket full of water and a cleaning solution that does wonders for blood. Hinata would know. She ruins more clothes than Ino does, so she’d been the one to go and look for something that’d actually remove all the stains instead of just having to throw away all her post-mission clothes.

She comes back into the bathroom, and Ino’s already sitting on one of the stools showering herself off. Hinata draws closer and grabs one of their shower rags, one of the soft ones that doesn’t irritate Ino’s skin so much when she has to scrub hard, pumps a generous amount of body wash onto it, and gets to work on Ino’s back and thighs. Ino herself is picking at her nails, making sure that every speck of blood is gone from under them. She’s also rubbing at the creases of her hands—probably hoping to get all the blood out of those, too, but it’s usually a lot tougher than just cleaning underneath the nails. Ino’s hands are often pink after missions—she doesn’t like to wear gloves, even though it’s standard for ANBU operatives.

She says she wants the kills to be personal. She doesn’t want to become someone who doesn’t care about her kills, who has to separate herself from them. She’d go mad if she did. Hinata understands where she’s coming from, but she prefers the gloves because the blood is just that much of a hassle.

“Are you feeling okay?” Hinata asks over the steady flow and splash of the shower. Ino shrugs, remaining silent, and Hinata doesn’t force the question onto her again. Instead she starts talking about her day—she knows that hearing about the little things, the mundane things, the things that nobody would normally think twice of, calms Ino down. “Today when I woke up, you weren’t there. I wasn’t surprised because you told me last night you’d be gone for an ANBU mission before dawn and would be back late. I missed you for a little bit and then I took a shower and made breakfast. I had rice and eggs because I didn’t feel like eating leftovers from yesterday’s dinner.” Hinata pauses to make sure Ino’s still listening to her. She is. Hinata scoots her stool over so she can look directly into Ino’s eyes, and so she has a better angle to work on Ino’s hair. Ino stares back at her, mind obviously on her hands, but she’s still making an effort to pay attention to Hinata.

“My morning was okay. I was being given my mission info,” Ino says, and Hinata feels a smile break out onto her face. It used to be nearly impossible to get Ino to talk about her day after rough missions. But she’s doing it now. Two sentences isn’t exactly a novel or anything, but Hinata will gladly take it. She won’t push Ino and Ino won’t try to go past her own boundaries.

“I didn’t do much for the rest of today because it’s my day off. I thought a little bit about the mission I have tomorrow. I don’t know much, though, so I’m assuming it’s an S-rank . . . ah, what else? Oh—around eleven o’clock I bought a book, one of Tenten’s weapons manuals. I want to ask her for tips on using a staff, but I’m not sure if she’s available any time soon. I read the book for the rest of today, but I stopped to eat lunch, and for dinner I was out with Kurenai-sensei at one of her favorite sushi places,” Hinata says. “We had fun. It was kind of a girls’ night. I came home and kept on with the book, and then you came home.”

Ino nods, taking the information in, and then she gestures toward the bath. “We can—get in now, I think. I’m clean enough.” She pauses, tilts her head consideringly, and nods, seemingly satisfied with whatever she’s thought of. “And thank you for telling me about your day.”

Hinata leans in to kiss Ino’s cheek. “Of course.” Ino smiles at her, a little quirk of the lips, and it’s a sign that she’s coming back from the ANBU mentality that she’d doubtless fallen into during her mission.

She picks up the bottles of shampoo and conditioner and sets them at the edge of the tub. She tests the water to make sure it’s not too hot, and, finding it satisfactory, motions for Ino to get in while she heads back over to the shower and hoses the soap off of the walls and floor and down the drain. Soap left un-rinsed has been a pet peeve of hers for years—she can’t leave soap in the sink after washing dishes or washing her hands, and she will make no exception for the bathroom.

She finally joins Ino in the bath, taking up the usual position behind her. She pumps a bunch of shampoo onto her hand—Ino says that she knows it’s a waste, but she just honestly prefers to overuse soap—and starts rubbing it into Ino’s hair. Ino hums contentedly, leaning back as far as she can without actually getting in Hinata’s way. She makes sure to take time massaging Ino’s scalp, touching every part of Ino’s head, grounding her and letting her know she’s in the bathroom, her wife is washing her hair, and she’s _not_ back wherever her mission had taken her.

Hinata slides back a bit and gently lowers Ino’s head into the bath water, using her legs to support Ino’s back. Ino’s eyes are closed peacefully and Hinata fights the urge to speak, to compliment Ino, to tell her how beautiful she is when her eyes are closed. Hinata knows that right now, Ino needs silence, needs only the sound of rippling water and their breathing. She takes a great deal of care not to tug on Ino’s hair as she works the shampoo out of it to the best of her ability. When she’s sure that she’s gotten most or all of the suds, she brings Ino back up and loosely twists her hair to wring it out before repeating the whole process with conditioner.

“Leave it in for a while,” Ino reminds her, and Hinata makes a great show of removing her hands from Ino’s hair. Ino laughs—and, gods, it’s a beautiful laugh, one that Hinata will never get tired of—and turns around to face her.

“You remind me every time we take a bath together,” Hinata says. Ino snorts. Hinata’s grin only grows wider. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Ino says. “I love you so much. Thank you for helping me with my hair—I know I ask you to do this every time I come home from an assignment, and I’m glad you always take the time out of your day to do it.”

Hinata glances down at the bath water, which is starting to turn murky with soap and probably old blood. She’ll have to drain and refill it in a bit if they plan on staying in for a while. She supposes she can let it slide for now, though—Ino seems to be in a talkative mood, back in her usual headspace. “You’re welcome,” Hinata says, looking back up to meet Ino’s eyes. “I enjoy it too, you know. It’s not a problem at all.”

“I know,” Ino says simply, and then gestures toward Hinata’s own hair. “Do you want me to work on yours while we wait to rinse mine out? That way we could both finish up at around the same time and rinse off over in the shower instead of making the bath water even dirtier.”

Hinata nods, turning around so that Ino can work on her hair. “Sounds like a plan. Did you hear about Naruto’s whole Hokage monument fiasco?” she begins, and Ino says that she hasn’t. Hinata chuckles. It’s quite the story. “They’re saying he painted it hot pink again, even though he says he’s sworn off those kinds of pranks forever . . . ”


End file.
